Page 14 of Grave Kisses (Graveyard of Hearts Collection #1)

Bellamy

I am standing in Marcus’s office as I watch him sit on his couch with his dad.

He is crying, and that hurts my fucking soul.

I truly do not understand what happened.

One minute everything was fine, and like a fucking light switch, she flipped to this cold and uncaring woman.

I refuse to believe that she is this… mean.

I have been trying for two days to explain to Marcus that he didn’t do anything, but he thinks that he pushed her too far or that she might not have been as consenting as he thought.

She was consenting. It wasn’t until well after that that she turned to ice. Clearly, she is triggered.

“I don’t get it. I don’t know what to do. I didn’t mean to hurt her; I just…”

“Hey,” Jesse says, practically running into the room as she drags Julie with her.

“What do you…” I start to say.

“Shh. Shut up. Listen to me,” she says. “I am going to set my computer here for safekeeping while I go to the bathroom. It has confidential information in it, so don’t be nosy.”

“Okay? You came in here—” I start to say.

“I am going to leave it here and go to the bathroom, Bellamy,” she says again.

“Ah. Okay,” I say. “Go on.”

Jesse nods and runs out of the room with her laptop sitting on my desk. I turn it to face me, and the others come around to look. As I read over everything, fear like I have never experienced floods my brain.

“I don’t like this,” Julie says. “I don’t like this one bit.”

“Maybe she’s just worried about…” I start to say.

“She’s planning to die,” Martin says quietly. “Either by her own doing or assuming Archer will.”

“Why would she kill herself?” I ask.

“Why does anyone?” Julie points out. “She’s always been borderline suicidal.”

“Alan told me once that his worst fear was her killing herself. She has spent years secluding herself. When he died, she forced herself out of her apartment. She’s not used to any of this.

She’s running on adrenaline and grief,” Martin says.

“I think it’s called agoraphobia. Literally, the only place she ever went was Alan’s house and this office.

She had everything delivered. Her mail came directly to her apartment.

The girls went to her place. She never went anywhere because she was always terrified that Archer would find her… and now he has.”

“So what do we do? Watch her spiral? Lock her in a padded room? We can’t force her to do anything. It won’t help,” Julie says.

“No,” Marcus says. “We just keep showing up… If we think she is a danger to herself, we have her committed.”

“Oh, because she will love that,” Julie says sarcastically.

“It’s not about what she wants, Julie,” Marcus argues. “It’s about keeping her safe. If she is not safe from herself, then we should do something about that.”

“Yeah,” Julie sighs.

“Hey,” Jesse says when she comes back into the room. “So…”

“We can offer her the basement,” I say. “It’s furnished as a guest area.

She can be independent but close enough for us to watch.

Let her pay rent if she wants. Whatever.

We just do whatever we need to do to make sure she stays close by.

Worst case scenario… we pull everything dangerous out and lock her down there. ”

“She will hate us,” Jesse says.

“She can hate us if she wants, as long as she is alive,” Martin says.